UPDATE: Eli Stokols reports on proof Perlmutter knew that the bill to allow child victims of sexual predators testify on closed-circuit television was constitutional, but still decided to vote for rapists’ rights anyway.

But Coors’ campaign spokeswoman, Michelle Yi, says that defense doesn’t hold up and points to audio recordings on the Coors campaign website of Perlmutter at a hearing being informed that the bill under consideration was constitutional.

“As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ed Perlmutter heard at a hearing on Feb. 7, 1996 that in 1990, the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that closed-circuit television were indeed constitutional,” Yi told FOX31 Denver. “During Second Reading of the bill on Feb. 14, 1996, Perlmutter was also informed that the Office of Legislative Legal Services issued a memo that stated the Colorado Supreme Court had also ruled that “the defendant’s rights under the Confrontation Clause were not violated.”

“The real insult is that Ed Perlmutter thought he knew more about the Constitution than the Supreme Court of the United States and the Colorado Supreme Court. Unfortunately for Ed Perlmutter, there is no statute of limitations on extreme votes.”

The issue of rape has been used already this cycle to smear pro-Life candidates for the Legislature, but now the issue is rearing its head on a Congressional campaign. Only this time, rape is actually at the center of the policy dispute.

The campaign of Congressional challenger Joe Coors is out with an ad slamming incumbent Democrat Congressman “Extreme Ed” Perlmutter for his votes that would protect rapists and force child victims of sexual abuse to face their abusers in court.

Check it out here:

The allegations in the ad surround two votes Perlmutter took while in the Colorado State Senate.

The first was a vote on a bill co-sponsored by a fellow Democrat that would have allowed children to testify against their abusers on closed-circuit television, rather than having to face their abusers in open court. Perlmutter opposed this bill, choosing the rights of rapists over the protection of child victims.

Now Perlmutter is flip-flopping on the issue, with his campaign telling Eli Stokols that he would support closed-circuit testifying. That flip-flop could extend the storyline in a way certainly not helpful to Perlmutter.

Further proving his love of rapist rights, Perlmutter also voted against lifting the 10-year limit on DNA evidence to prosecute sexual predators. His campaign did not tell Stokols that Perlmutter has flip-flopped on that issue, so we assume he still wants limits on prosecuting serial rapists.

After a million dollars has been spent by outside liberal groups attacking Coors — $500,000 from Nancy Pelosi’s House Majority PAC and $500,000 from union SEIU — Coors is punching back. Also launching along with the ad is a new website: www.Extreme-Ed.com.

Unlike the lame ads attacking Coors, in this case, the Coors campaign appears to be doing a much better job pinning the extreme tail on the donkey.